Sergei Bubka wants 2012 stadium promise honoured

London's Olympics organisers must be faithful to their promise and retain the 2012 stadium's running track after the Games, according to Sergei Bubka.

West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur are the preferred bidders for the Stratford venue, but Spurs have made it clear they intend to rip out the track.

"We shook hands and had a deal," said IOC member Bubka in Monaco.

"In 2005, it was guaranteed to us the track would stay - this is a matter of dignity," added the pole vault great.

While Tottenham plan to make the east-London stadium an 80,000-seat venue, West Ham want to create a 60,000-capacity arena for football, athletics, concerts and community use in a collaboration with Newham Council.

Bubka insisted he had received more guarantees the track would be kept during a three-day inspection visit in September before London withdrew its bid to host the 2015 athletics World Championships.

"I was the chairman of the evaluation commission for London and Beijing 2015 and they told us the track would remain, I saw it written in documents," said Bubka, who is an International Association of the Athletics Federation (IAAF) senior vice president.

"The United Kingdom has an unbelievable story of athletics (feats) and I can't believe we are talking about such a thing," added the world pole vault record holder, who was speaking at an IAAF council meeting.

Bubka also plans to talk to Sebastian Coe, head of the London 2012 organising committee, who is also in Monaco.

Meanwhile, Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has criticised the lack of public money that has been made available for the club's proposed new stadium.

Spurs are hoping to move from White Hart Lane to either a new purpose-built ground close to the current site or the Olympic Stadium.

"This development has not attracted a penny of public money," said Levy, in regards to the new site in Tottenham. "Arsenal and Wembley were both awarded public sector assistance."

"Our development has the potential to kickstart regeneration in one of the most deprived boroughs in London, where land values are poor and yet no regeneration monies are available to it," added Levy.

Earlier in the week, Tottenham's proposal to take over London's Olympic Stadium with AEG after the Games in 2012 was branded as "completely unacceptable" by UK Athletics (UKA).

"Anything they might propose for an athletics legacy has to be a compromise to the stadium continuing to operate at a world-class level. To my mind that is completely unacceptable," added UKA chairman Ed Warner.

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